Thursday, May 9, 2013

INDY 500 BEGAN THE YEAR ROSETTA WAS BORN -- 1909

Historical Milestones During Rosetta's Early Years

A 1909 RACECAR

Rosetta was born in Chicago, Illinois on November 18, 1909. Just three
months before she entered this world, the first race was held at the
Indianapolis Motor Speedway, now the home of the world's most famous motor
racing competition, the Indianapolis 500.

It was built on 328 acres of farmland five miles northwest of Indianapolis, Indiana by local businessmen
as a testing facility for Indiana's growing automobile industry. The idea was that occasional
races at the track would pit cars from different manufacturers against each
other. After seeing what these cars could do, spectators would presumably head
down to the showroom of their choice to get a closer look.

You have to remember that cars were not very prevalent at that time, so this
was an innovative venture to promote those newfangled motor cars. The
rectangular two-and-a-half-mile track linked four turns, each exactly 440 yards
from start to finish, by two long and two short straight sections. In that
first five-mile race on August 19, 1909, 12,000 spectators watched Austrian engineer
Louis Schwitzer win with an average speed of 57.4 miles per hour. For the day,
that was real speed. The track's surface of crushed rock and tar proved a
disaster because it broke up in a number of places and caused the deaths of two
drivers, two mechanics and two spectators.

The surface was soon replaced with 3.2 million paving bricks, laid in a bed of sand and
fixed with mortar. Dubbed "The Brickyard," the speedway reopened in
December 1909, just after Rosetta was born. Her parents were too poor to even
think of owning a motorcar and wondered if this fad would catch on.

In 1911, because of low attendance the track's owners made a
crucial decision: Instead of shorter races, they resolved to focus on a single,
longer event each year, for a much larger prize. That May 30 marked the debut of
the Indy 500--a grueling 500-mile race that was an immediate hit with audiences
and drew press attention from all over the country. Driver Ray Haroun won the
purse of $14,250, with an average speed of 74.59 mph and a total time of 6
hours and 42 minutes. In those days, that was a fortune.

Rosetta, like many women of her era, never learned to drive. The thought of
women racecar drivers was thought to be as ridiculous as putting a man on the
moon. Well, both happened.

In her book, "Can We Come In and Laugh, Too?" Rosetta spins tales of what it was like growing up as the youngest of ten children in a zany family and the former Charleston Champ takes you through the Jazz Era, World War II and more. Paperback and Kindle

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Rosetta the Dancing Queen

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Now available in Kindle and Paperback

ABOUT ROSETTA

Born in 1909, Rosetta was the youngest of ten children in a zany immigrant family. She talks about growing up in the early 1900s when cars were still being developed, very few people had telephones or radios and getting an education beyond grammar school was a privilege for children in families of modest means.

Laughter was Rosetta's companion throughout her long llife--nearly 97 years, and she had the ability to inspire others to achieve beyond what they thought possible.

Her handwritten memoir was turned into "Can We Come In and Laugh, Too?", now available in paperback and digital editions. So grab a comfortable chair and share a bit of laughter with her.